Rays Make Two Moves and Another Up The Standings

The Rays, who much to my chagrin made 0 moves at the MLB trading non-waiver trading deadline two weeks ago, have made two moves to shore up two of our three weakest areas on the team.  They have added Russ Springer and Gregg Zaun to augment the bullpen and catching defenisve respectively. Joe Dillon and Michel Hernandez were designated for assigment to make room for both players.

Zaun adds a nice veteran presence behind the plate, and his .244 AVG seems Ted Williamsesque in comparison to the Dioner “The Black Hole” Navvaros numbers this year.  He comes with a World Series ring to his name and should be a nice solid under the radar addition.

Springer comes in with a 4.10 ERA, 1.59 Whip and a .299 Oavg so everyone shouldn’t get too worked up about the addition, but his numbers would look much better if he never had to face lefties, which he won’t for our team.  Joe Maddon has already made that clear.  Springer can still bring the cheese even though he is 62 years old.

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The Rays won a big game last night vs the Mariners to help move them .5 games behind Texas in the WC Standings and 1.5 games behind the leader the Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card Standings.  The game was pretty ugly with James Shields not looking sharp all night, and Ian Snell (the Mariners starter) walking 6 guys in 1.1 innings of work before getting yanked.

Jason Bartlett set the tone for the Rays going 1 for 3 with 2BB, 2R and 2RBI.  He has a 1.178 OPS since moving into the leadoff spot.

Evan Longoria and Carlos Pena blew the game open in the 5th hitting with HR’s.